The historical tomato factory of D.Nomikos in Vlychada has been transformed into a modern Industrial Tomato Museum, offering its visitors a journey back to the industrial past of Santorini, by guiding them through the cultivation, processing and production of tomato. Given that tomato is one of the most famous and traditional products of Santorini, makes this experience a unique one. In the museum the visitor experiences all the traditional methods followed by the tomato producers of Santorini and at the same time, becomes acquainted with the museum exhibits.

These include a full range of the processing machinery dating back to 1890, hand-written account books of the plant, a variety of hand-written notebooks regarding various aspects of the factory, old tools, the first labels used, a dated history of the island of Santorini, its inhabitants and their unique tradition as well as audiovisual material with narrations of people who worked in the plant, witnessing their firsthand experiences of a by-gone industrial era.

THE TOMATO

The cherry-sized tomato of Santorini has been cultivated on the island since the end of the 19th century. Although not irrigated, it grows due to the morning moisture withheld by the soft volcanic soil with the pumice stone it contains. Santorinian tomatoes have a distinctive flavor, hard peel, small size and high sugars, making it ideal for the production of tomato paste.

Museum Opening Hours: Daily, except Mondays 10:00-16:00.

Tickets: 3€

SAF

Santorini Arts Factory is a nonprofit organization based on Santorini Island, Greece, that aims to promote the Greek cultural heritage and to contribute to intellect and culturally shape children’s and young adult’s education. It was founded in 2014 and it is housed in a unique old factory that now stands as the Tomato Industrial Museum “D. Nomikos”. The mission statement of this innovative endeavor is that SAF becomes one of the main cores of cultural activity on Santorini as well as a crossroad of civilizations, which will provide direct, firm and constant access to qualitative artistic events.